Well it just arrived from Strat 1st and now sits on the pc desk daring me to install it. But I resist!, fearing the oft maligned graphics and it's reported inferiority to F.P.S. games. It is merely another issue of the dying Adventure genre afterall. Though resistance is futile I continue to wait for what I don't know.

Well I guess I've been spoiled by Heavenly Sword cutscenes and TF2 facial animations etc I actually like that touch though, the faces are lifeless but the lipsync is pretty cool, I can't tell if it's scripted or generated by reading the waveform (the latter likely, and is pretty impressive). I can't really fault the lack of facial animation though since their minimum spec was targeted to be very low.

I Can't enjoy the game because it's badly designed, bugs or not ,see hint section I probably will finish it eventually though, but Sam and Max seems to be carrying the torch single handedly nowadays. Either way I don't think this game deserves the glowing reviews at all. *For an adventure game* Syberia, Still Life/Post Mortem etc yes but this is nowhere in their league so far like the reviews seem to have indicated. JA is especially guilty of over reviewing some adventures which would have been lackluster "back in the day" to try and encourage the genre along but Culpa's praise so far seems really ridiculous even by their standards.

Originally Posted By: BrownEyedTigre

I guess it's good to be me, because I can play the games while being ignorant of what is good or bad graphics. I would not even think of criticising the graphics in Culpa, in fact the only thing I can remember from playing was how unbelievably clear their faces and expressions were. The rest was more than adequate to keep this gamer happy and content.

Posted by fathamburger:

Quote:

It's a dying genre not necessarily because of all those things though, it is a dying genre because it is appealing mainly to an aging playerbase that remembers them in their heyday, and a genre that is not growing or appealing to new players.

Adventure games are basically amateur hour nowadays, but as I mentioned Blackwell above.. Dave Gilbert could technically be considered an amateur but his games are far tighter and more polished than most of the Myst clone [blip] that makes it to the shelf

Ouch. I can't even begin to formulate a response to that except to say that this comes across as a clone statement from any number of gaming sites that cater to those that think the world only revolves around shooters.

I'm sorry you can't relax and enjoy the game for what it is and instead just see what it is not. You are missing out on some simple pleasures.

Syberia wasn't that good. I finished both 1 and 2 and found both to be quiet boring.As for culpa, it does worth the good reviews it gets. When you first start it you'll probably hate it. But after playing for 20-40 min you will really get into it. The story line has these awesome twists that you would never expect. If you would advance in the game, you'd know what I mean.

The only downsides of culpa are crash and movement bugs (That most are already fixed with the new patch) and the graphics. Let's face it, they're out dated. The facial expression are ok but the rest could really use an improvement. But the good story line makes up for all flaws.

It's a dying genre not necessarily because of all those things though, it is a dying genre because it is appealing mainly to an aging playerbase that remembers them in their heyday, and a genre that is not growing or appealing to new players.

At GameBoomers we frequently see new adventure gamers who are just beginning to enjoy gaming and the adventure genre. Often these are not gamers who played the classic adventures and then have gone on to other genres. Often these are gamers who are starting out by first playing a recently released adventure, which they enjoy for its strong story, strong characters, or immersive environments.

The lack of combat or other kinds of explicit violence in adventure games is often a calling card for these new gamers. It's not unusual for these gamers to hail from the vast, relatively untapped hordes of "older" gamers, including the Baby Boomers.

As for new adventure gamers who don't enjoy a game because of its lack of "polish" -- you may have seen that, but I haven't. Usually when I talk to someone who has drifted away from the genre without ever getting "hooked," I hear two complaints.

Either they couldn't get the game to play glitch-free on their computer and don't want the hassle of tweaking it (in this case, in my experience, they are usually trying to install games on their laptops). Or they think that the puzzles are too hard and too obscure. The first problem is a problem for all PC games, not just adventures. The second problem is one that I think should be addressed, either through in-game hint systems or varying difficulty levels -- and I'm seeing more adventure games using one or the other.

It's impossible to think that the adventure genre is dying when dozens of adventures are released every year. At this time of year, adventures seem to be releasing every week. The problem is keeping up with all the releases, not lamenting that there aren't any new games.

The problem with adventure games today is that there are no big companies that want to make them. Most companies that make adventure games are small ones that you only get to know through the game. If EA games or Eidos would make adventure game, for example, it would be awesome.

Most big companies aim for other genre such as FPS or strategy. Adventure games today are not that good tbh. When was the last time you saw a breathtaking graphics in a quest game?

The Adventure Company is the only well known company for adventure games (at least for me) and they are ok. But thats the problem, they are just ok. Today's FPS games are simply amazing (Bioshock, Half life 2 etc). There are no amazing adventure games anymore, just ok ones.

Sinotek, I'm sorry you haven't found any amazing adventure games. I assure you, I have.

What makes a game "amazing" is different for every player. I am lucky in that I have 2 kids that love gaming and so I see and sometimes play many different genres with them on many different platforms.

One is not inherently better than the other. To each their own. Sometimes, my own is Keepsake on the PC, while at others, it's Baldur's Gate 2 on the PS2 or Hero's on the Box.

I also have to take issue with the statement by Fathamburger that there are no new Adventure game players. I started playing adventure games for the first time 3 years ago and came over to Adventure games from the Xbox and the PS2. I don't think I'm alone in this.

However, as interesting as this debate has become, it has wandered rather a long way from the topic :witch:

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"Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole." -Roger Caras

Yeah and again, Keepsake's graphics is pretty bad (And yeah I know it was at 2006, but still). Thats the main problem. All companies can make good story lines, but the problem is the way they execute them.

I very much disagree with you - Keepsake is one game that did just about everything right. But as the mods have indicated, this is getting off topic, and I'm only contributing to that and will stop there.I haven't seen Culpa yet, but it will be interesting to see a game that sparks such feeling, whether positive or negative.

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"How could drops of water know themselves to be a river? Yet the river flows on."- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

If Culpa Innata had been developed by Electronic Arts for a more general market, and had full 3D amazingly photorealistic graphics with lots of extra animations, etc. --

Would it also have a WASD control scheme that would alienate the point-and-click adventure gamers?Would it require a better, faster computer than most of us have, and would there be more glitches to deal with?Would the puzzles need to be "simplified" for the general audience?Would the dialogs have been shortened, and the plot "simplified" for the general audience?Despite all of this, would the action/arcade gamers be attracted to its more leisurely-paced gaming style and thought-provoking themes?

I have mine too, but I'm still playing Wintersonne. <-- me too slow... Now you guys are making me want to abandon Wintersonne and just install Culpa Innata instead. !

Fathambeurger/ aging graphics is a GOOD thing. It means I don't have to plunk down $400 for a better graphics card spend $ on games instead. (The Awakened ran like a snail on this beast) It means that the budget for making those amazing graphics could go towards better voice acting and more time developing story and puzzles.

EA can pull off a decent quest game if they'll dedicate themselves to it. Yes, it would require a better PC but thats how everything is today. You gotta move on with the time. It won't take long before all adventure games will require a better PC.BTW I know people who hate quest/adventure games but they loved Dreamfall. Why? because it had a good visual to it and an amazing story line. Most adventure games have an average graphics with good story lines. That is a shame because it makes the game less attractive to some. That is the major flaw in adventure games today. Most gamers see the not so attractive graphics and they get turned off by it. To some (like you Becky) graphics is not a factor. But to some gamers (Like me) it is.

I think the conversation here does logically lead to Dreamfall, which I think is the best recent example of a game trying to bridge these issues. If anyone is interested, we can join the Dreamfall thread here.